When Your Brain Gets It Wrong: Understanding Anxiety and Thought Patterns

Authored By: Michael Green

Your Brain Is Always Working, Even When You’re Not Aware

My brain is always working.

It’s always thinking, always deciding. And the truth is, I’m not aware of most of it. A lot of what my brain does happens automatically. It regulates my system, surveys my environment, and constantly tries to keep me safe.

And when you really think about it, that’s incredible.

Take something as simple as breathing. As I’m talking, I’m using air to form words, but I’m not planning my next breath. My brain is already anticipating it, adjusting in real time, making sure I have enough air to keep going.

Or something as basic as walking down the stairs. After a couple of steps, my brain has already figured out the depth, the balance, the timing. I don’t have to think about where my foot is going to land.

It just handles it.

When Protection Becomes a Misfire

But sometimes, it gets it wrong.

And for me, that’s what anxiety often is.

Not a malfunction. A misfire.

My brain is still trying to protect me. It’s still scanning for danger. But instead of responding to what’s actually happening, it’s using past experiences, old beliefs, and old fears to make what feels like an educated guess about the situation.

And then it treats that guess like it’s fact.

The Lens That Shapes Everything

That’s where the lens comes in.

The circumstance might be neutral, but the lens narrows everything down to potential danger. Especially emotional danger like judgment, embarrassment, or not being good enough.

And once that lens locks in, everything changes.

I feel it physically. Mentally. Emotionally. My thinking tightens. My creativity drops. I stop responding freely and start reacting.

A Real Example of Anxiety in Action

One of the clearest examples of this for me is at work.

I run groups, and every morning there’s a whiteboard with the schedule. When I see my name next to a group, there’s an immediate reaction. Before I even walk into the room, I feel like I’m going to be judged.

If other staff are in the room, especially people I don’t know well or see as more experienced, that feeling gets stronger.

The lens becomes: “I’m not going to do this right. They’re going to see that I don’t know what I’m doing.”

And once that lens is in place, I start second guessing everything. I’m less natural, less creative, less myself.

I saw this clearly when I first came back to Pathways after being away for years.

A nurse practitioner asked if she and a few nurses could sit in and observe one of my groups. Instinctively, I said no. I told them they’d be better off observing someone else.

Later, I realized what happened.

My brain saw that situation as a threat. Not physical danger, but emotional danger. Judgment. Embarrassment. Being exposed.

So it tried to protect me.

But it got it wrong.

Using the CLEAR Method to Reframe Anxiety

That’s where CLEAR comes in.

The Circumstance was simple. I was running a group, and the staff wanted to observe.

The Lens was: “I’m going to be judged.”

The Emotion was anxiety and self-doubt.

And the Response was avoidance.

But what I’ve learned to do, sometimes in real time, is introduce an alternative.

Not to force a positive outcome, but to open up another possibility:

Maybe this group helps someone.
Maybe I actually do know this material.
Maybe my job isn’t to be perfect, to show up and do the best I can.

When that lens shifts, even slightly, everything else starts to shift with it.

From Anxiety to Presence

Instead of shutting down, I push through.

And once I get going, the anxiety fades. My thinking opens up. My creativity comes back. I’m not stuck in my head anymore. I’m just there, doing the work.

And part of that work is being real.

If I lose my train of thought or go off on a tangent, I’ll say it. There’s a connection in that. It makes things human.

Genuine Over Perfect

At the end of the day, I don’t need to be perfect.

I just need to be genuine.

Because the goal isn’t perfection.

The goal is to be helpful.

My brain is always working.

But I don’t always have to believe everything it tells me.

A Closing Reflection

If this resonates, you’re not alone. Anxiety, self-doubt, and overthinking are not signs that something is broken. They are often signs that your mind is trying to protect you using outdated information.

The ReFrame is an ongoing reflection series by Michael Green, CAC-AD, designed to help you slow down, look at familiar experiences differently, and find more useful ways of responding to what your mind tells you.

Michael’s work at Recovery Collective focuses on addiction recovery, relapse prevention, anxiety, and the deeper patterns that shape behavior.

If you would like to explore more reflections or schedule time with Michael, you can connect through Recovery Collective to continue the conversation. You can read more of his writings and other articles by our Practitioners in our blog section on this site. Thank you for being here.